Day 47 – San Sebastián (2 of 3)
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza
First, I need to retract yesterday’s inaccurate characterization of San Sebastián. It is not like Miami and it is not built particularly for tourism.
San Sebastián was a thriving international commercial seaport long before Ponce de Leon even arrived in Florida. It has a wide range of traditions, arts and culture which are celebrated in noisy raucous festivals throughout the year. For instance in late January locals celebrate “Tamborrada” by having hundreds of drummers march through the streets in costumes until late at night.
San Sebastián is wrapped around a long sandy bay which is dominated on each end by 180 meter high promontories.
Saint Sebastián on Mount Urgull
Igueldo Tower
On the other side of the bay, on an equally imposing hill overlooking the town is Igueldo Tower, built as a lighthouse in 1778. The access to this was by a rather rickety funicular.
(Brief video of funicular ride)
Standing at the base of Igueldo Tower, I took the following picture looking across the bay towards Mount Urgull.
Looking east toward Mount Urgull
The sculpture at the top of this page is of Don Quixote and his faithful squire Sancho Panza. It is located in Cervantes Plaza near the La Concha beach. I’m currently re-reading Don Quixote and have been a fan of Miguel Cervantes since college when I strategically placed quotes (properly attributed) from this story in a final exam on operating systems.
San Sebastián is one of the stops on the Del Norte Camino route. I’ve been interested in following a part of it back towards Paris. This morning I met two pilgrims who had just arrived from Irun, the previous stop on the Del Norte. They were quite optimistic about my plan to walk back towards Irun and let me take pictures of their maps.
Tomorrow I will confirm this idea with the tourist info office and check into an alburgue near the Camino path to get an early start on Tuesday morning.
Buen Camino,
-jgp
